Hitachi Data Systems Object Storage Solutions

SOLUTION PROFILE
Hitachi Data Systems Object Storage Solutions
An Evolution in Storage and Data Mobility:
The Object Store
As unstructured data continues to grow faster than IT
budgets, organizations are looking for ways to support
growth while reducing complexity and easing the pressure
on IT budgets. In addition, the rise of hybrid cloud, bringyour-own-device (BYOD) policies, and file synchronization
and sharing pose new challenges for IT. Hitachi Data
Systems provides intelligent, object-based storage solutions
and applications that support diverse use cases like file
synchronization and sharing, cloud storage and archiving,
from a single cluster, simultaneously. These solutions enable
more efficient operations, help secure and protect data
assets, and help IT stay agile as organizations and business
needs evolve.
Unstructured Data Challenges
The challenge with unstructured data (file data) is that
it is unstructured. Many of the technologies to manage
it were implemented when this data was a small fraction of the total compared to structured data.
As unstructured data began to grow more quickly,
the fundamental differences between structured and
unstructured data began to impact the IT environment in significant ways. In response, organizations
deployed specialized technology to support the vast
quantity of data being created. The technology of
choice was network attached storage or NAS. Easy
deployment and compelling cost led to storage
sprawl, which created new challenges in managing,
governing, protecting and searching content. In
response, many organizations are now considering
cloud storage due to its perceived lower cost and
ease of scale. However, the loss of control over those
data assets is troubling to many IT organizations:
Who has the encryption keys? What kind of service
levels can be expected? What if I want to change
service providers?
Object storage brings structure to unstructured
file data, making it easier to store, protect, secure,
manage, organize, search, sync and share file data.
The great scale and rich features of these solutions
help organizations leverage a single storage investment for a variety of workloads. Such workloads
SOLUTION PROFILE
include cloud-based file synchronization
and sharing, providing efficient file services
to remote sites and mobile users. They also
include storage for Web 2.0 applications,
backup-free file storage, organizational
archives and much more.
The Hitachi Data Systems object store,
Hitachi Content Platform (HCP), provides
solutions to these challenges through a
single platform. It brings cloud management
in-house and provides intelligent automation that frees up IT staff from day-to-day,
hands-on administration.
Bring Structure to
Unstructured File Data
Hitachi Data Systems object storage solutions bring structure to unstructured data.
They avoid the limitations of traditional
file systems by intelligently storing content in far larger quantities and in a much
more efficient and economical manner.
These solutions provide for new demands
imposed by the explosion of unstructured
data and its growing importance to organizations, their partners, their customers, their
governments and their shareholders.
The Hitachi Data Systems object storage
solutions treat file data, file metadata and
custom metadata as a single object that
is tracked and stored among a variety of
storage tiers. With secure multitenancy and
configurable attributes for each logical partition, the object store can be divided into
a number of smaller virtual object stores
that present configurable attributes to support different service levels. In this way, the
object store can support a wide range of
workloads, such as content preservation,
data protection, content tiering and distribution, and even hybrid cloud from a single
physical infrastructure. One infrastructure
is far easier to manage than disparate silos
of technology for each application or set of
end users.
The Content Cloud
Object storage is fundamental to the Hitachi
cloud strategy. Hitachi Data Systems object
storage, Hitachi Content Platform, serves
as the core of the content cloud. Layers of
additional applications and media technologies around HCP extend the reach of the
Figure 1. Hitachi Data Systems Object Storage Solution
object store to open source environments,
the cloud and beyond. With object storage
at the core, data center operations for file
data can be automated. They can be made
more efficient by archiving fixed content
and eliminating tape backups for data in
the object store. Once data has been consolidated on HCP, business insights can
then be developed by leveraging the built-in
HCP metadata search engine. The result is
consolidation of the highest performance:
Expensive storage can be right-sized for
the workload with the bulk of the data in the
object store until high-performance access
is required.
Seldom-used or sensitive data can also be
tiered to Hitachi Content Platform S series
nodes. The HCP S series node is a costoptimized, massively scalable, local, onpremises Tier 3 storage target for HCP that
is built on commodity hardware. It is ideal for
storage and protection of large data sets,
such as those used for big data. The S series
node delivers a plug-and-play-based streamlined implementation process. It also provides
erasure coding for data protection. With
this in mind, content that must be stored
on-premises can be tiered to HCP S series
nodes using the HCP “service plan” feature.
A flexible data management strategy can also
be implemented so that the data residing
on HCP can be protected appropriately with
RAID while data on the HCP S series nodes
is protected with erasure coding. Erasure
coding provides faster rebuilds for large data
sets compared to RAID.
However, there is literally
Hitachi Data
an entire world outside the
Ingestor
data center. File services at
Capabilities
remote and branch offices
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can be easily provisioned
and managed to the data
center’s object store using Hitachi Data
Ingestor (HDI). This connection allows them
to enjoy elastic, backup-free file serving
from a device that acts a lot like a NAS
device. The difference is, the device stores
most of the data in the content cloud
instead of in local storage. The files that
get used regularly can be “pinned” to that
site. HDI also enables elastic scale by using
the over 450PB of capacity available in
HCP and by growing and shrinking remote
file systems. Now all data is available at
all sites, at all times, without the burden
of replication, and with a much smaller IT
footprint. In addition, object storage provides the platform for similar functions on
end-user devices, otherwise known as file
synchronization and sharing.
File Synchronization and
Sharing
The traditional means of sharing files
are breaking down, giving way to email
attachments, content management systems, copies on user devices, copies in
backups, and copies on file servers. This
development leads to inefficient storage
and network utilization, owing to massive content duplication and high cost for
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storage, backup and data management. The
limitations of the old methods have led to the
popularity of consumer cloud-based file synchronization and sharing tools. It’s not just
file sharing, though. The rise of BYOD means
end users want their work data on multiple
devices; getting work data onto a smartphone or tablet would require individuals to
use file-sharing techniques to move that data
where they want it, making matters worse.
These trends are causing problems for
IT. End users are generating and sharing
more and more copies of data, exacerbating storage and network inefficiencies
and storing them in unsanctioned devices,
applications and clouds. These actions
put the data outside the control and governance of corporate IT. The answer is not
ruthless enforcement of strict policies, as
end users will just find another workaround.
The answer is not to simply give up and
turn data over to consumer clouds. The
true solution is to deliver file synchronization
and sharing from within IT. The true solution
enables end users to access data and collaborate on any device, from any location, at
any time. And it allows them to do so safely,
securely and with corporate oversight, using
a private object-storage-based cloud.
The Hitachi Data Systems solution combines
Hitachi Content Platform object store and
Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere (HCP
Anywhere). A file synchronization and sharing
application, HCP Anywhere was designed
and built for enterprise IT, unlike most solutions, which are built for consumer use.
Intelligent Objects
In most storage systems,
Hitachi
the intelligence resides
Content
Platform
within the storage, itself,
Anywhere
which limits service to hunLEARN MORE
dreds of millions to about
a billion files. This volume,
unheard of less than a
decade ago, is now becoming more and
more common.
To make the significant next jump in scale
requires some intelligence to reside in the
objects, themselves. In such a model, individual objects would have the “DNA” to
know when to create clones of them and
how to adjust to changes in environment.
For example, in the case of a rush of read
requests in a particular geography, objects
would be cloned and migrated to the hot
spot to service requests locally. Once read
activity subsided, objects would know to die
off, as there would no longer be a need for
such a large population.
As a means of comparison, consider the
human organism, which contains tens of
trillions of cells. If it were solely governed
by conscious control, the human organism couldn’t operate. Instead, the human
organism is controlled by a set of autonomic
functions. These functions operate independently of conscious thought and thus
can perform the myriad functions necessary
to keep such a complex group of cells operating as a single unit. To achieve extreme
scales in the tens of trillions of objects,
intelligent object stores will likewise need to
push down some of the intelligence to the
objects themselves. This action will create
“intelligent objects” capable of responding
to changes in the environment.
To do this, object storage uses metadata,
or information about a file, to intelligently
automate the management of file data. All
files have metadata: their file name, file type,
size, last access date and so on. Hitachi
object storage goes several steps further. It
provides multiple fields for metadata so that
different end users and applications can
use their own metadata and tags without
disturbing others’ metadata. It also provides a built-in metadata query tool. The
tool enables fast search. It also offers more
complex queries to help select sets of data
for further analysis or create smart policies
around how content should be stored,
retained, protected, accessed and more.
Cloud Enabled
Consider these attributes:
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The security and integrity of an archive.
The protection of RAID-6 erasure
coding, advanced replication and failover
capabilities.
Massive scale.
Support for thousands of tenants and
namespaces.
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Built-in chargeback capabilities.
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OpenStack Swift API compatibility.
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A management API.
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A REST-based http interface that works
with a variety of http dialects.
Simultaneous IPv4 and IPv6 support.
De facto standards, such as Amazon’s
S3 API.
Built-in hybrid cloud capability to automatically tier data to a choice of one or
multiple leading public cloud services
based on user-defined service plans.
With these benefits, and more, Hitachi
Data Systems object storage solutions
compose an ideal platform. From this platform, organizations can build the core of a
private, public or hybrid cloud that delivers
secure data mobility throughout, plus file
synchronization and sharing. It provides
an on-premises storage solution for cloudbased applications.
SOLUTION PROFILE
Key to the economics of cloud is virtualization and secure sharing of a common set of
physical resources. Hitachi Data Systems
object storage solutions provide multitenancy
that allows IT to securely provision a portion
of the infrastructure and turn control of that
storage and its capabilities to the end users
of that storage. By imposing quotas on those
tenants and charging based on their measurable usage, IT can better influence the
behavior of end users by showing them the
cost of their storage practices.
Also important for cloud is the ability to
easily adapt new storage models to current user and application behavior. With
an integrated “on-ramp” or “edge” device
that connects applications and end users
at distributed sites to centralized object
stores, the power of Hitachi is available to
distributed consumers. This device enables
private organizations to reduce storage
and data protection costs at remote or
branch offices, and control the distribution
of content to different geographies, lines of
business and other appropriate audiences.
Cloud service providers can deliver an edge
device that integrates directly with their core
infrastructure, providing their customers
with greater control and security for data in
the cloud. In both cases, IT organizations
can gain simplicity, focus on the business
and speed return on investment.
Content Preservation
Many organizations want to ensure that digital content is preserved for the long term.
Some of the reasons are regulatory, but
others are to ensure content is preserved
and protected for the future as an asset to
the organization. Many times these assets
can then provide a competitive advantage
for an organization, driving value from the
content assets.
Many organizations want to continue using
their preferred software provider to interface
the content source to the object storage
infrastructure and remove their historical
“islands of information.” This stance allows
IT to shift its focus to implementing an
enterprise-wide strategy with a common
repository for long-term management, preservation, protection and search of content
and its metadata. It allows IT to take the
first steps toward “big data.” IT can reduce
the cost and risk associated with managing
different “islands,” as well as optimize the
return on investment and provide a longterm corporate repository. IT can improve
the cost-effectiveness of the organization’s
IT strategy by leveraging a variety of media
as part of the object store. Such media
includes the economically priced and highly
scalable Hitachi Content Platform S series
nodes, tape media and even a choice
of leading public cloud services. IT can
also establish a solid platform for future
compliance or information governance
requirements.
These solutions provide an infrastructure
that can be provisioned and configured to
serve a wide range of use cases from a
single infrastructure that provides key functionality, such as:
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“Write once, read many” (WORM) and content authenticity service for data integrity.
Encryption and access control for privacy
and security.
Index and search for e-discovery.
Object tracking and event logging for
audit support.
Metadata mining and full content search,
which help gather metrics, look for trends
and find relationships among data.
Multiple protocols, that can access
advanced features to support multiple
applications.
Retention and disposal management
services to automatically govern how long
content is kept and how it is deleted.
Back Up Less … or
Backup-Less?
The growth in unstructured data stresses
traditional, tape-based backup and restore
operations. Numerous, disparate systems
with large numbers of files and duplicate
copies of data increase backup and restore
times and impact the performance and
availability of production systems. They
drive up cost and complexity with the handling of increasing numbers of tapes, the
management of off-site storage and the
possibility of a compliance or legal action
needing information stored in tape-based
backups. Hitachi Data Systems object
storage solutions attack the problem in four
ways that reduce the amount of data to
be written to tape and streamline recovery
processes.
First, the object store proObject
vides a target to offload
Storage
data from primary systems
Solutions
to the object store as
an active archive. While
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archives used to be considered only the end of
the line for content, Hitachi Data Systems
object storage solutions provide an environment that supports multiple versions
of the same content. Multiple versions of
less frequently used content can be in the
object store and be accessed directly by
end users and applications: No special tools
or custom applications are required to view
and access the archive. By moving less
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used and static content to an object store,
IT vastly reduces the amount of data on
expensive, heavily used primary systems.
This approach reduces the amount of time
spent backing up and, more importantly,
restoring critical systems, and it basically
eliminates the hassle over less-critical content. Furthermore, it effectively reduces the
buying frequency for expensive software
capacity license upgrades.
Second, data deduplication and compression are used to control data size by
eliminating unnecessary copies and shrinking the amount of storage used for a given
piece of content. As new objects are written
to the object store, the content is compared
with similar objects and unnecessary, duplicate data is eliminated or compressed to
save space. This capability combines with
selective replication (where administrators
can decide what data to replicate) to reduce
the amount of data at replica sites and
conserve precious replication bandwidth.
Controlling the overall amount of storage
consumed on the object store and any of
its replica systems streamlines failover to
secondary systems and recovery of primary
systems once the failure is repaired.
Third, because of its content preservation capabilities, the object store already
ensures data integrity with WORM, encryption and more. By adding services such as
data protection levels, advanced replication,
version awareness and the ability to browse
the environment, the object store ensures
objects are well protected and easily recoverable. As the data is on-site and on disk
that can be easily browsed, content can
be recovered quickly, on demand, at a
particular point in time, and in a selfservice manner. This approach reduces
help desk costs and avoids the hassle of
finding the right tape, mounting it (assuming
it is on-site), reading the catalog, and spinning to the right point of the tape only to
learn that another version is needed.
Fourth, the object store provides data
retention and disposition services that
automatically keep content for the prescribed duration. Barring a retention hold,
it automatically deletes expired content so
the capacity can be reclaimed and recycled
back into available storage. These deletions
can be logged and annotated to provide
an audit trail of what content was removed,
when, by whom and why. These technologies are key as the traditional methods of
keeping every file forever and backing all
files up every week are too costly and risky
in today’s economic, regulatory and legal
climates. By putting policies in place and
adhering to them with automated tools that
log important events, organizations can
greatly reduce the risk of failing an audit
or facing a fine due to rogue data in
long-forgotten tape.
Using the object store as a platform for file
synchronization and sharing can have significant effects on data protection, as well.
Consider all the copies of a file that get created: the original on a user device, a copy
on a file server, a copy on the Web, a copy
on the mail server, a copy in each recipient’s
inbox. The list goes on and on. Despite these
all being the same file, they all get backed
up, some get replicated, and some aren’t
even known to the IT organization. Now,
with the object store, image links instead of
files are moving through all these systems.
Rather than a 2MB file, there is a hyperlink
that refers to the latest version of a single
instanced, compressed and well-protected
file that can be accessed anywhere. No more
full inboxes. No more version confusion. No
more unnecessary duplication of data.
Hitachi Data Systems object storage
solutions combine the capabilities of an
object store with file synchronization and
sharing technologies and key attributes of
data protection. This combination gives
IT organizations the ability to deploy a
single, intelligent, object-based storage
infrastructure that protects data in place.
This enables them to back up less data to
tape without sacrificing recoverability or
scrapping existing investments in backup
infrastructure. In addition, Hitachi Data
Systems object storage solutions position IT
to pursue a backup-less strategy that provides greater protection and faster recovery,
and is more reliable as well as easier to use
and manage than competitive solutions.
And, by making use of highly scalable and
economically priced storage tiers, and even
removable media, this approach rivals the
cost of traditional tape-based backup.
Summary
Unstructured data has surpassed structured
data in total volume and given rise to a new
set of challenges for IT. Rather than continually deploying more capacity and suffering
the effects of sprawl, or handing over control, security and protection of corporate
data assets to a consumer cloud, the time
has come for a change in how content is
stored and managed.
Hitachi Data Systems object storage solutions are the product of customer and
partner input. They are designed to address
the challenges of fast growing file data,
increasingly diverse data types and access
methods, and storing content for years,
decades, centuries and beyond. By integrating many key technologies in a single
storage platform, Hitachi Data Systems
object storage solutions provide a path to
short-term return on investment and significant long-term efficiency improvements:
Intelligent metadata, the tools to search and
analyze that information, support for open
source environments, as well as support for
legacy, current and emerging storage protocols combine to meet IT challenges. Hitachi
Data Systems object storage solutions not
only ensure that IT can address the challenges faced today, but they also set IT up
for what’s next. IT can evolve to meet new
challenges, stay agile over the long term,
and address future change and growth.
For More Information
To learn more about how Hitachi Data
Systems can help you with your unstructured data and to read more about our
solutions, please visit www.HDS.com/
solutions, contact your local sales representative or solutions consultant, or call Hitachi
Data Systems at 888-234-5601.
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SP-012-I DG October 2015